Barclays has handed its top executives share bonuses worth more than £30m as it faces pressure from investors to explain the scale of awards handed to its staff despite a fall in profits.

Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays, received shares worth £3.81m from the bank, while the largest individual payout went to US banking boss, Skip McGee, who picked up a bonus valued at £8.87m.

The share bonuses are about £8m lower than last year’s awards, though the 2013 figure was inflated by a close to £18m handout to Rich Ricci, the former chief executive of the investment banking division who left Barclays last year.

Details of the payouts come amid growing pressure on Barclays to explain to investors how it intends to improve its performance. Bonuses at the bank increased by £200m year-on-year to £2.4bn despite a fall in group profits, while the investment bank’s bonus pool rose from £1.4bn to £1.6bn even though the division’s profits fell 37pc.

Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch last week published a report on Barclays claiming shareholders had “lost patience” with the bank. The report set out a series of radical restructurings the bank could undertake to appease investors, including selling off and closing down large parts of its investment banking arm.

Mr Jenkins has responded to criticism of the bank by insisting on the need to continue paying substantial bonuses to avoid a “death spiral” from the loss of key staff.

“I understand completely the sentiment from shareholders and broader society that it feels unreasonable, but if we are going to be a world-class investment bank then we have to deal with the compensation structure as best we can,” said Mr Jenkins in an interview with The Telegraph this month.